Royal Oak attorney had sex with juvenile call-girl, Feds say

A Royal Oak attorney is jailed without bond in a case where federal investigators charge he began having sex with a prostitute when she was 14 years old in exchange for legal representation, gifts and cash.

Documents filed in federal court in Detroit show Donald Guest, 43, met the girl in 2010 shortly after she began advertising as an escort on Backpage.com and had a two-year relationship with her that continued even after he was arrested.

Phone records indicate Guest was obsessive about calling the girl, referred to as “T.P” in court documents, dialing her number 1,364 times in the first four months he knew her and more than 1,700 times from April to Oct. 27, 2012, the day she was picked up by federal authorities and interviewed.

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“The sheer volume of communications that Guest sent to T.P. (shows) an intent to stalk or control her in some fashion,” U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand wrote Aug. 11 when he ordered Guest jailed without bond while awaiting trial.

Grand said the evidence against Guest is overwhelming and shows he engaged in “manipulative, coercive and threatening behavior” to maintain his relationship with the girl.

“More recent evidence shows that Guest is unable to control his criminal behavior,” the magistrate judge wrote, adding that Guest was a flight risk who had recently taken an “odd … trip to Uganda.”

Guest’s wife appeared in the courtroom during her husband’s hearing before Grant, but her presence – along with Guest’s strong ties to the area and lack of previous criminal history – was not enough to convince Grant that the attorney presented no flight risk.

“Not only did Guest carry on a lengthy sexual relationship with a young minor, but he represented her in exchange for sex, threatened to cease representing her if she did not provide him with sex, and (approved of) her providing an alias to authorities,” Grant wrote. “Grant also could not control his criminal sexual behavior even after he had been arrested.”

Guest’s world began to fall apart the day agents with the federal Southeastern Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force recovered T.P. on Oct. 27, 2012. The girl, by then 17, told an FBI agent that Guest was her attorney and one of her clients. Guest was arrested the same day on criminal sex charges.

The girl told authorities that Guest was one of her first prostitution customers. He paid her $100 for sex dates, took her shopping and paid for her to have her hair styled, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed in federal court earlier this month.

“T.P. recalled that guest took her shopping at Northland Mall for her 15th birthday and gave her cash for 16th birthday,” the agent wrote.

One text message exchange between Guest and the girl showed how their legal and sexual affairs sometimes played out, court documents show.

Guest: “Were you gonna see me?”

T.P.: “Y not”

Guest: “Idk (I didn’t know) I was just asking cause u said after we finished up in court you would.”

T.P.: “U got money right”

Guest: “I’m talking about for helping you out. Remember?”

Guest: “Just get the appeal form from your new lawyer. I knew you would go back on your word.”

After authorities arrested Guest, he reportedly admitted to investigators that he engaged in sex with T.P. and her cousin T.M. who also worked as a juvenile prostitute, court records show.

He represented T.P. on a prostitution charge in Warren in 2012 and was able to get the charge reduced to solicitation. Guest also represented the cousin when she faced charges related to a school fight, according to court documents.

In T.P’s Warren case, where she gave police officers an adult alias, Guest wrote in a text: “And its not even under your real name so it don’t matter.”

The federal charge against Guest is for transporting a juvenile across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The charge stems from a trip authorities say Guest took with T.P. in July 2012 to Georgia. The girl was arrested there for providing police with false identification. She left some of her belongings in an impounded vehicle.

She was released and returned to Detroit. Two weeks later, Guest drove her to Georgia, records show, in exchange for sex so she could retrieve her belongings.

The State of Michigan Attorney Discipline Board disbarred Guest in January 2004 for mishandling money from court judgments, putting them into his personal checking account and forging checks on his employer’s account. His license was reinstated in May 2010.